How do you know what components to choose to do what you want in FF ?

When I started out, I took other ppls filters apart to see how they achieved things.
Then I used the techniques I had learned from that in my own filters.
Often it was just trial and error. I had lots of fun experimenting with plugging components into each other and see what happens. The Noise Lab thread was a great source of inspiration.
Oh and ofc I read the articles about filter construction and optimization.

About how I know what components to choose - experience. Or simply trial and error.
When I know what I want, I also have a look at existing filters. If there is something similar to what I need then I might use that as a starting point.

Yeup, what Shar said. Adding to that I think it's also important to have a goal making something. It's better being able to see where to aim rather than wandering around without much thought. You can get pretty cool results doing experiments, but for starters, I think having a goal is important than wondering what combos work.

As an example let's say we want a mossy cobblestone wall texture. I know you're going for effects but this was an easier example. Well first instead of just diving straight into FilterForge, we look for references that depict what we want. A bit of google search helps. So after picking some references we think works in our favor, we can deconstruct that texture to its elements.

A mossy cobblestone wall" consists of the of following elements: 1. The cobblestone wall. 2. The moss. 3. Extra foliage. We can then break this into more pieces. The cobblestone wall consists of the cobblestones themselves which are rough, chipped, cracked, weathered, and grayish. The motor that binds the cobblestones are light gray, concrete, and may not be present. See the image below for the full deconstruction

By doing this we start to get a clearer idea of what components we need to shop for. For the cobblestones we need the bricks component. The stone texture for the cobblestones will need to be produced by combining several perlin noise patches together. The mortar should also be created separately by similarly blending elements together. The moss is an overlay of more noise combos. The extra foliage might be taken care of with other types of noise patterns.

The point here is that by separating each element into smaller pieces we start getting a better sense of what components work in favor.

MOST of filterforge is blending together chunks of elements utilizing masks, and otherwise. We start getting into advanced techniques to save us time, but for the most part we put together elements for a final result. This applies similarly for effect filters, though effect filters tend to be simpler than texture filters.

The point is this. There is no right or wrong, but there are good practices and you can read those on the wiki. You'll have to kinda learn that on your own by observing what you think is a good example of a filter. But the idea is still the same. There are elements and there's the final output. There's a tendency for people to solve the problem in one shot, but what you really need to do is to solve the problem in chunks, not as a whole.

Well, the cookbook - or rather the wiki in general - needs contributors!

Regarding the editing of wikis: Clicky!

By the way, those FF1 techniques that are in the Cookbook still hold true, but people other than me could add some FF2+ techniques. I'd be very happy to see folks on the forums pick up some wiki editing duty. After all, this should be a collaborative effort!

( I've kinda given up on the "collaborative effort" ideal though, considering the fact that since the wikis inception there have literally only been a handful of contributors. Apparently, people are just not interested in creating FF learning material in wiki format. )

I mean I thought about contributing to the wiki several times. What seriously hinders me is the fact that I'm just not used to its editing system. Also kinda don't have much courage to add anything. I fear I may be wrong about stuff sometimes and I seriously hate to misinform. heh.

I start with a goal. Then see who did something close to that already. Open it up in the filter editor and see how they did it. Then I find the other missing attributes of my dream filter in many other filters and see how they did it. Then combine parts of all. In doing so, you learn useful things.

I am sorry that I forgot and missed to answer on this thread

WOW!! Thanks very much for all the answers and comments and showing how you would do it.

Specially to Skybase that you have taken the time to explain it all very well and in a detailed way and even made that good graphic to show it better.

Also to Sharandra that you have also learnt very well how to use FF for your own purposes and know how to get the things done well with interesting and very good and amazing realistic results.

SpaceRay,

did you read this thread? It might provide a good starting point for your own explorations.

And then there's also the Beginner's Cookbook, which focuses on very basic "visual recipes".

Thanks for the links, there are interesting and useful, I have not seen before the first one and like it, although I have found the cookbook as it is on the wiki.

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SKybase Crapadilla, I kinda take it that cookbook needs a serious upgrade

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Crapadilla Well, the cookbook - or rather the wiki in general - needs contributors!

YES! I agree that it would be very good to upgrade it and have more intersting "recipes" in the FF cookbook specially from all of you that know much more from FF and could have the time and would want to help the FF community with their skills, experience, and ideas.

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Sharandra Skybase, you have a great way of explaining things, so please don´t be shy and contribute

I totally agree, after having seen your FF video tutorials, you know very well how to shown and teach other how to get things done and is easy to understand and follow.

It would be a very good help, when you find a hole in your alreaby busy working day, to contribute making more tutorials or updating the wiki, and/or making more snippets or whatever you may think to help learning more about FF, of course always if you want to do it.